I woke up the next morning with my head against Archie's chest as he ran his fingers through my hair. It's been about two weeks since the whole grey wolf incident and today was finally the day that one of the elders was coming down to discuss everything with Archie, Robert, Jenny, and me since they've been doing their research on the rogue packs in town.After we got out of the car on that day, I wouldn't let go of my boyfriend all day because of how scared I still was. I found out later on that it was a rogue and he had on some sort of bracelet that had some number on it that one specific rogue pack made their members wear, So they went to the elders for them to help them figure it out since they didn't have the resources for that yet.Within the past two weeks, I had barely gone home because Archie and the rest of the house, including me, were worried that some rogue in the same pack would recognize me and try to attack me, so now I was never allowed to be alone until they get every

I shake my head. "My dad won't understand, Archie. He won't care how we tell him or where or why or whatever, all he'll see is that I'm still gay while still dating a man that he will now think of as a predator. He'll start to question me about everything and just make everything worse and-" Archie cuts me off by pulling me into a hug as he starts to see me work myself into a panic attack. I grip his shirt in my hands as I try to calm myself down from everything just crashing down around me. Not only will there be a whole pack of angry wolves looking for me and my boyfriend, but now my dad will start to see me as an even worse person because of the man I chose to be with.Archie's hands run through my hair to emit sparks throughout my head. "It's okay, I'm here. I'll always be here." After we're able to calm me down, I start the drive back to my house, but the entire time, there's this voice in the back of my head that's just telling me to turn around. About 100 times during the rest

I walked into English class the next day, noticing how the three people I usually sit next to were staring and gazing at me as I sat on the opposite side of the classroom. After I get out my notebook and start scribbling along the white page, a hand comes down on my shoulder, making me jump back in surprise as I look up to see a beautiful African American girl and I realize that it's Ria, the girl who's my partner forthe dance routine that I had gotten the lead for."Oh, hey, Ria, what's up?" l ask, looking back down as my pen makes random lines on the paper and I can still feel the stares from the people across the room. My palms start to sweat as the feeling of being watched catches up to me and I have to run my hands down my joggers to get rid of the sticky feeling."I was wondering if l could sit with you? I don't have too many friends in this class and since you're sitting alone, I assumed that we could get to know each other since we're dance partners and all" she says to me l

I shake my head, too angry at myself and the world to even respond right now. I keep walking towards my car, but I can still hear her footsteps behind me until Robert's face comes to stand in front of me and when I try to go around him, he grabs me to keep me in place as the anger pulsing within me starts to sting my eyes, making me look like a baby since I've cried the past few days in a row because of everything going on.Jenny comes back over to me to stand next to her boyfriend she crosses her arms as we stand in the cold. "What's happening? Why are you being like this to Archie? He didn't do anything to you."Something within me snaps and I pull myself out of Robert's grip, surprising him by my strength as I take a few steps back to contain my anger before looking back at them with this fierceness in my eyes. "No, he didn't do anything, but this isn't about him.This isn't even about you, all right? It's none of your goddamn business and you can't just scare me into staying here

I grabbed his arm and he looked down at me, setting the bag on the floor to give me his full attention. "I'm so sorry, Archie, you don't understand how sorry I am. I should've stood up for myself and I should've stood up for you better and I'm just so incredibly sorry for all of this bullshit."He shakes his head. "It's okay, baby, I understand. You're going through a lot. I smile, wrapping my hand around his neck to pull his lips down to mine to have the first kiss we've had in the past week or however many days. His tongue ran over mine and I realized that the 15 minutes was almost up of the time we had to get our stuff before we had to leave, so I had to pull away, making him whine before trying to connect our lips again."I know, but we have to leave soon, right? We're taking them to the guest house" I ask him against his lips. He nods his head, going back into alpha mode to pick up the bag on the floor to continue putting stuff into it. My hand runs over the back of his jeans, ma